


RNA

by Ccub



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:04:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27440122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ccub/pseuds/Ccub
Summary: In which Lena Luthor is a one woman brain trust, she is called Dr. since she has multiple PhDs, she saves humanity from COVID-19, cancer, and the common cold, and her only weakness is a humble blonde reporter/alien superhero.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 14
Kudos: 32





	1. The Long Game

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all, I'm a tiny bit of a science nerd, but this is fiction. Don't kill me for getting science things wrong, please. 💜

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena moves to National City and saves her reputation with the help of publicist Nia Niall.

Lena Luther was good at many things, but above all, she excelled at the long game. In addition to her significant intellect, her drive, and her resilience, she'd always been able to take the wide angle view, even when she was five and lost her mother. She still remembered when her mother died. The adults had tried to explain it to her using simple terms, not understanding she was capable of so much more. 

Even when she was sick, you see, her mother had known Lena was remarkable. She'd taught Lena to read, taught her as many languages as she knew (four) and let Lena loose in the library. Lena, at age four, was attempting to cure cancer. She did not want her mother to die. Of course she didn't. To say Lena failed in her attempt to cure cancer would be premature. She didn't fail. She just didn't do it soon enough to save her mother.

This was why Lena accepted her fate as an unloved child, why she never quite understood her own genius, and why she spent her young adulthood in and out of relationships with people who used her. She believed she'd let her mother down. And even when she did, eventually, cure cancer, she could not forgive herself for that.

\-----

When Lena moved to National City after Lex lost his absolute mind (the most recent time), she didn't expect it to be easy. Her mother was of no use. Lillian had also gone off the deep end, leaving Lena to single handedly rescue her family's dwindling assets with basically both hands (or power of attorney, anyway) tied behind her back. Lena didn't have much money of her own, but she had learned the law and was an exceptional researcher. Somehow, she was able to wrest away the family's assets by hiring the right lawyer at the right time and overseeing every motion herself. In the end, she had full control of Luthor Corp, her mother and brother were in maximum security prisons, and she fired everyone else.

That alone made her a bit of a pariah. She sold the Metropolis headquarters, changed the name to L Corp, and brought her only two friends on as her executive assistant and her CFO. The rest was all Lena.

When she arrived in National City, the press tried to eat her up. Lena handled it. When they said she was related to a murderer, she arched an eyebrow masterfully and said, "yes, and? Half the people in this country are descended from slave-traders." When they said she was cold for testifying against her mother and brother, she asked what she should have done instead. When they said she didn't appear to be upset about the carnage her family had wrought, she said, "oh, you want my white tears? Let me tell you, they aren't worth it. But here are six non-profits you can help me support, if you'd like to take action."

Lena Luthor, you see, had hired a publicist, a good one. And unlike most celebrities, Lena Luthor actually listened to her publicist. That was another of Lena's best skills: listening to experts. So, when her publicist, Nia Niall, told her to go running early in the morning and let people see her, Lena did. When her publicist told her to get a dog, a big one, and to bring her dog running with her, Lena did. When her publicist told her to buy the building she lived at the top of and rent its office spaces to liberal non-profits at low cost, Lena said, "Sounds like a party to me!" And she rented its office spaces out at $40 a month to whatever liberal org wanted in. When Nia told Lena to learn everyone's name, to get to know them, to donate to them and wear their t-shirts on her runs, Lena stopped into the offices with her enormous new dog, Newf. (He was a Newfoundland. To Lena "get a big dog" meant "get the biggest dog you can find.") She gossiped with them, heard about their causes, and made donations on the regular. She even asked one or two out, made sure to choose wisely from those who wouldn't get attached, and gently friend-zoned them after a moderate amount of NSA sex. If those few she chose to sleep with harbored crushes after the fact, how did that hurt anything? Before a month had passed, Lena started seeing headlines about her "consorting with the ultra-liberals" of National City. People smiled at her when she passed them on her runs with Newf in his Rise Up collar and Lena in her Habitat for Humanity tank top.

\---

"Nia," Lena declared one Monday, dropping the local free paper onto her publicist's desk, "you are a genius! I'm giving you a raise. Don't argue." On the cover of the paper was a photo of Lena and Newf, running by the water, Lena in a MoveOn.org visor and Newf with his HRC collar and his tongue lolling out, looking like a clumsy, happy bear on a leash. The headline read, "LENA LUTHOR'S LEFTIST LEGACY!"

"Wasn't gonna argue," laughed Nia, reaching for the coffee Lena offered in her other hand. 

"This is exactly the kind of coverage I wanted. Thank you."

"Oh, no, thank _you_ , Dr. Luthor. I cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to have a client who does exactly what I tell her." 

"Well." Lena sat down. "I don't understand why a person would pay someone money and then ignore her advice."

"Trust issues?" Nia suggested. 

"I have those. I listen." 

"You, Dr. Luthor, are exceptional."

"Awwww. That's so sweet, but if you don't start calling me Lena, I'm not bringing you coffee anymore. And, by the way, I love the work these orgs do, and I will gladly vote left for the rest of my days, but you can be damn sure I won't give up my gun permit, my safe room, or my money. Just so we're clear."

"Yeah, of course," Nia said. After all, if she had a history like Lena's, she'd want a gun, too. 

\----

Six weeks later, as Lena was looking into her microscope at a virus, she saw something alarming. Technically, Lena wasn't a medical doctor, though she had several PhDs. Her most related doctorate for this task was microbiology, but medicine and microbiology overlapped so much. Lena knew what she was seeing. It was a projectile like appendage on the outside of the virus. A penis, if you will. And Lena had just seen it pierce the membrane of a nearby cell. It had succeeded in attaching itself on the first try. This alone would not have alarmed Lena. Just by chance, it was bound to successfully infect a host cell on the first try some of the time. But Lena had been up all night because Lena Luthor played the long game. This was the 137th consecutive time this virus had succeeded in infecting its host on the first attempt.

"Hope," Lena said to the virtual assistant in her lab, "get me the CDC. Now."


	2. Gay Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Lena team up. Kara and Lena meet. Kara experiences gay panic.

Lena was exhausted. She'd been working with Dr. Alex Danvers, whom Lena had at first believed was a member of the CDC, to unlock the secrets of this virus and communicate the severity of the situation to the powers that be for months, and still no one believed them. They'd been in L Corp's lab for days, but what was time anyway? At some point, Alex and her secret government agency (She didn't actually work for the CDC.) decided the origin of the virus was need to know for Lena and some few members of the L Corp vaccine team. She revealed that she actually worked for the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, which focused primarily on aliens. She'd been sent when Lena called the CDC because the virus Lena was studying had actually originated off-planet. 

Lena hadn't known that, but it didn't matter. Viruses weren't human or alien. They were neither. And both. As a scientist, Lena understood that life existed or it didn't, it thrived or it was exterminated. It was either a parasite, like a virus, or a being capable of existing in a symbiotic relationship, like a beneficial bacteria. Evidently, the DEO thought the virus might be a deliberate attempt by an alien species to attack humans. That didn't make sense to Lena, since the virus she was slowly beginning to understand would infect aliens, too. Anything with cells, in fact! Alex agreed it didn't seem likely to be an attack, but continued to assist in the effort to communicate the seriousness of the virus to a government that wouldn't listen. Since so few people had actually caught the virus so far, the US government was unconcerned. But Lena was concerned, and the DEO was, too. At least they'd been able to persuade some governments to take action. Just not their own.

L Corp had been working on a vaccine, of course. Lena and her team had designed an adaptable vaccine, which she hoped would protect against a whole group of viruses with the same type of projectile. Lena wanted it to be ready before the virus started spreading widely. They'd rushed through stage one and two trials and were entering stage three. The only problem was that the vaccine was pretty harsh. It was currently causing flu-like symptoms for two full days in the volunteers. Lena was sure anti-vaxxers would use this as leverage to discourage others from taking it. Lena didn't like to think about how now people referred to "taking" a vaccine, as if it were something to be endured, rather than a privilege. She was old-fashioned and liked to think of "getting" a vaccine.

Whatever the case, Lena knew she needed to find a way to make her vaccine more palatable to people. She joked with her team and Alex, one sleep-deprived night, that they should lace it with LSD or pot. That's when she had an idea. 

"Alex," she whispered, afraid to jinx it. "What if we added some kind of pain reliever to the vaccine? L Corp is working on a pain reliever as well. It's an ultra low dose steroid and anti-inflammatory which relies on super-hydration to speed bodily processes. It could make the duration of symptoms shorter and more mild. Tests show it's much more effective than acetaminophen." 

"Yeah, that might work," Alex said. "No reason not to try it. Let's add a trial dose to the study. I assume this pain reliever has already got FDA approval?"

"Yes," Lena confirmed. "We've just been working out the packaging, of all things, so it's not in stores, yet, but it's approved for over the counter use."

It was at this time when a woman Lena didn't know walked in. A tall, adorable blonde woman with glasses and a cardigan/skirt combo to die for. Lena had always loved the librarian look. It was a weakness of hers, honestly. When she'd been at MIT, she'd made a habit of hanging out at the library for many reasons, not all of them scholastic. . .

Whatever the case, this woman was stunning. As she came closer, Lena kept waiting for the flaws to reveal themselves, but it only became more apparent just how exactly Lena's type she was. By the time she was close enough to tap Alex on the shoulder, Lena had noticed everything about her. She had fucking amazing hands, long fingers, beautiful blue eyes, legs forever, arms that looked like they could bench press Lena all night, and she smelled amazing--like watermelons or kiwis or some delicious summer fruit extravaganza. Lena was rapidly losing her ability to think. She just stood there, staring and trying not to drool.

Alex turned to look at the woman.

"Oh, hey. Kara, this is Lena Luthor, the amazing microbiologist I've been telling you about."

Kara stuck out her hand. Lena tried not to hyperventilate. She realized she was trembling. Automatically, she took Kara's hand and shook it.

"Nice to meet you," said Kara, letting loose a megawatt smile which somehow made her even more attractive.

"Likewise," Lena managed breathily, trying to sell her nervousness as flirtation. Her heart was racing. Was it possible to actually faint from being too attracted to someone? Four PhDs, and she could not seem to recall how the nervous system worked. As their hands stayed clasped for what seemed like minutes, Lena tried to remain calm, smiled like a civilized human, and desperately searched for something witty to say. 

"I'm Alex's sister, Kara," said Kara.

"Are you also a doctor?" Lena wondered.

"Pssh, no!" laughed Kara. "I'm a reporter."

"Oh, well. Nothing on record yet. About the vaccine." Lena clarified. 

"Yes, yes, I know." Kara smiled again. "I've been briefed." She glanced at Alex. "Alex, listen, I'm really sorry to interrupt here, but if we don't leave now, we'll miss mom's birthday."

"Oh, shit, I forgot!" whined Alex. 

"No worries. I've got you. I got a gift and card from the two of us. I know how busy you've been." Kara turned back to Lena as Alex went to get her things.

"Wouldn't want Alex to miss your mom's birthday!" Lena said. She sometimes tried to act as if she understood normal families, especially in front of beautiful women. 

"Oh, it's no big deal," Kara said softly, "but since our father died, it's been harder for mom. You know."

Lena had no idea. "Totally," she said earnestly, with a look she hoped was empathetic. Oh my God. What was wrong with her? What had happened to her game? This gorgeous creature was standing here, just waiting to be chatted up, and Lena suddenly had the vocabulary and eloquence of a stoned surfer.

She found herself even more drawn to Kara at her show of vulnerability, the simple way she shared such an emotional detail of her family's life. Lena didn't know what to do with this massive attraction, so she just let her instincts take over, and suddenly, it was ok.

"Kara," she said smoothly, recovering, "Alex has said so much about you. It's nice to finally meet you. I feel like I know you," Lena laughed. "When you spend so much time working with someone. . ."

"Right," Kara said excitedly, "I feel like I know you, too. You're all she talks about. She's usually full of insults about how stupid the people she works with are, how four years of medical school didn't teach them jack, but all she says about you is how brilliant you are." 

Lena blushed. "She doesn't act like she thinks that," she said quietly. 

"Well, you know," Kara replied. "Cool butch exterior and all that."

Lena smirked, "oh, I've met one or two of those before. Not my preference, but I've given it a shot. I'm too hard to get close to myself. Can't have two of us that way." Lena lifted one eyebrow significantly.

Kara blushed, confused somehow at how this conversation had taken on such lesbian themes. But then she realized she'd started it, with the butch comment. But what was Lena saying? That she didn't like butch women? Was Lena even gay? Was Kara? Oh my gosh. Was Lena FLIRTING with her?

"Um. Well. Nope. Can't have that!" Kara replied, with undue enthusiasm. Then she smiled and, for some unfathomable reason, did a little hop of nervousness. "ALEX, WHERE ARE YOU?" she bellowed. 

Lena, suddenly mortified at having accidentally engaged in non-consensual flirting, hastily responded, "I'll go get her!" And off she ran. 

Kara was left to wonder what the hell had just happened. She eventually decided she'd experienced her first gay panic. But everyone who experienced gay panic was gay, right? Oh.


	3. Instincts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena and Alex bond. Lena's building explodes, and she badasses her way through an apology and an interview with Kara.

Lena felt incredibly guilty for the way she'd flirted with Kara. She hadn't meant to frighten the girl, for heaven's sake. Most women liked Lena's brand of directness. In fact, to be honest, Lena had never been turned down. She tried to convince herself it was the novelty of rejection that made it impossible to get Kara off her mind.

It was a week later when Alex returned to continue working in the lab with Lena and her team. Lena tried to find out more about Kara without directly asking Alex. 

"How was your visit to Midvale?" she asked politely.

"Great!" Alex enthused. "Mom loved her gift, which was this amazing height adjustable desk. She wouldn't stop raving about it. And Kara was suddenly full of curiosity about my lesbian lifestyle, so I got to talk about women the entire time!"

Now, _that_ was interesting. . . Lena laughed with what she hoped was casual interest.

"Has she not been supportive before?" Lena asked.

"Well, you know she's adopted, right?"

"No," Lena said. It hadn't come up that Alex's sister was adopted, though Lena and Alex had talked a lot. 

"Yeah, and her birth family was from a culture that is just really different in terms of how they view and experience romantic love and sexuality. It's a small culture. A place you won't have even heard of. And like, they don't have romance there, so she's just not understanding of much at all, in terms of that. She's tried to adjust, of course. But she was 13 when my parents adopted her, so her ideas about sex and love were already almost fully formed. She's had some trouble adjusting to the way Americans are in that way. Not just us queers, but like, the whole thing."

Lena was fascinated. She needed to know more about this mysterious culture. 

"Where is she from? I've heard of a lot of cultures. Don't doubt me," Lena challenged.

"Oh, no, it's something she's embarrassed about, so I can't tell you," Alex said apologetically. "It was kind of a cult."

"Oh," said Lena. "So, is Kara asexual?" she asked, trying to seem like she wasn't that interested.

Alex snorted. "No way. She's entirely too uncomfortable around women in short skirts. I think she's probably gay, but she just hasn't arrived at that knowledge about herself yet, and I don't want to push her." 

"Ah," said Lena. "You're a good sister."

"Thanks," Alex said. "Now, let's get to work."

Two weeks later, they had a new test version of the vaccine, with the patented L Corp pain reliever/hyper hydration agent to counteract the flu like side effects. There were other vaccine candidates, of course, but Lena knew hers would be the most well tolerated and effective, as well as the first available. Honestly, she was pleased with her team. No one could say that a medication that simply aided the body's own absorption of water was a dangerous additive, and it worked. The trials with the new version of the vaccine were even more effective than the original version. Further, the subjects on the new version of the vaccine experienced even fewer side effects than the placebo subjects. Lena knew this was likely because the hyper hydration agent just made people feel good. Half this godforsaken country was eternally dehydrated, anyway, with their caffeine and their alcohol and their poorly engineered HVAC. And some of the straight men Lena had dated in her early college days hadn't even moisturized! Sometimes Lena felt like it was a pity she was only one person and therefore didn't have time to save America from all of its self-destructive impulses. 

Lena was joking happily with Alex and Sam (her CFO, who'd stopped in the lab for Lena's signature) about the self destructive tendencies of Americans in general and its straight men in particular one late night when her alarm went off. Alex got out her taser, Sam hid behind a cabinet, and Lena took deep breaths and tried to remember everything her Krav Maga instructor had ever said to her all at once. A few seconds later, the lab was full of security and dogs. Newf, Lena's dog, was there, too, but he was snoring under a table. This alone made Lena sure that either the intruder was an idiot, or there wasn't an intruder. Newf was big and lazy, but he had great instincts. Way better than the $30,000 police-trained dogs her security team used. 

So, Lena was calm, for the most part. It turned out to be a malfunction, according to Lena's head of security. Jesus. Was Lena going to have to design a functioning security system herself in all her free time? This was the third she'd bought in as many months. The world was full of incompetence, and she couldn't find a decent security system for love or money. 

Even though there'd been no intruder, Lena doubled up on her Krav Maga sessions, and she made sure to stay hydrated and rested. It was hard with the FDA approval process coming up, but she knew she couldn't stay alert if she was sleep-deprived. So, basically, to save time, she began sleeping in the lab. Which turned out to be a good thing when the building of her penthouse and all her beloved lefty orgs' offices exploded.

The morning after the explosion, Lena was in her office ordering 16 new pencil skirts in varying shades of black to replace her exploded wardrobe when Jess buzzed.

"A Kara Danvers from Catco Media is here to see you. She insists that you owe her one, so you won't mind that she doesn't have an appointment." 

Lena blushed, reminded of her awkward attempt to flirt with Kara and how embarrassed the reporter had seemed. And she'd been so busy that her intention of apologizing had just sort of evaporated. Oh, dear. . .

"Yes, please, Jess. Send her in."

A few seconds later, Kara pushed through the door, in an adorable spring dress that took Lena's breath away. Lena stood, offering her hand. They clasped hands briefly, and Lena said, "please. Sit. I assume you want to talk about my exploding building. But first, I need to apologize to you for blatantly flirting with you when we met. I am so sorry. I don't know what got into me, and I certainly didn't mean to make you so uncomfortable. It won't happen again. Forgive me?"

Kara grinned. "Of course," she said, "no harm, no foul. I'm just not, you know, gay." 

Lena nodded. "Even if you were. Not everyone who's attracted to women is attracted to me."

"No?" Kara smirked. "I find that hard to believe."

Lena felt the heat rise to her cheeks, but she recognized the comment for what it was. A peace offering, a way to make things between them less awkward, and an incredibly generous offer to allow Lena to save face. She sat down.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Now, what do you want to know about my exploding building?"

"Where were you at the time of the explosion?"

"In my lab. I've been sleeping there to save time since our current research is so urgent."

"Do you know who would want to harm you or why?"

"You have a very detective like interviewing style, Ms. Danvers. . . But, sure. My brother and my mother both desperately want to kill me, and they both have resources to allow them to do so even from prison. I'm grateful the explosion was at night so none of the offices were occupied and no one was hurt, but that does make it pretty obvious I was the target."

"Here's a less detective style question for you then, Dr. Luthor. Is there anything you want to say to your would be assassins?"

"Absolutely. What I have to say is those offices have nothing to do with us. If they want to hurt me or settle our family squabble, exploding Habitat for Humanity is not going to help their cause. It's only going to make them more reviled. So, leave everyone else out of it, and come at me. Keep it in the family. Come at _me_."

"Wow," Kara breathed. 

For the rest of the interview, they discussed the vaccine. L Corp was scheduled to provide it free of charge to all of National City's unemployed and homeless residents at a clinic held outdoors at the end of the month, and Lena was going to give a speech beforehand.

She gave Kara a press pass and said she hoped she'd see her there. 

"You bet," said Kara smiling. "Thanks for the scoop!"

And Lena tried not to notice her ass as she walked away.


End file.
